Under promise, over deliver… give your customers what they want even before they ask!

How many times have you rung a company with a small problem or niggle that could easily have been solved but it ends up blowing up in your face? I’m guessing quite a few times. You know the kind of situation – you have a problem with something that needs a simple resolution but the company argues the toss and you end up falling out over it. On most occasions the company usually capitulates and does what you want but the fight has left you with a bad taste in your mouth. Why is this?

Do companies really not give a s*** or is it something else?

A lot of the time I think it depends on which salesperson you get and what frame of mind they’re in that day. Think about it for a moment. You’re having an awful day, the phone rings and it’s some pesky customer with a problem for you to solve. You put on your “I’m pretending to be polite head” and you go through the motions. Challenge here is that the customer may be frustrated at the original problem or perhaps they feel uncomfortable that they are having to “complain” because it’s outside their comfort zone. This sounds like anger.

Few salespeople really consider why the customer sounds angry, they just hear anger…

In my experience, few salespeople really consider why the customer sounds angry, they just hear anger. This annoys the sales person and they therefore don’t really LISTEN to the customer and take on board what they’re saying. What is more than likely a simple problem with a simple solution gets blown up out of all proportion as the salesperson and the customer start to point score and become adversarial.

When the salesperson finally offers the customer the solution that they wanted all along, they’re not happy because they are now annoyed with the salesperson. What’s worse is that every time customers experience this situation it reinforces the negative connotations they have about asking for a resolution and causes them to feel more uncomfortable next time they need to make a call like this. Worse still is the fact that you as a salesperson also attach more negative associations to this kind of call and therefore you get wound up more quickly.

I got what I wanted even before I asked…

A couple of weeks ago I had been having problems with one of our online mail service providers. I read through the online instructions and decided that to do what we needed to do we needed to upgrade. So I did. After upgrading I still couldn’t do what I needed to do so I rang customer services for advice. I explained that I had just upgraded the service and asked for instructions on how to set up the new function. The sales representative talked me through the process finishing with the following line…

C: “That should all work fine when you’ve done that but if it doesn’t please call me back and I will be pleased to help. Is the use of that function the only reason you upgraded?”
G: “Yes”
C: “Then you didn’t need to. I will refund your money straight away and put you straight back onto your existing service. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

Customer happiness = 110%!

Now that’s the way to sell. That’s under promising and over delivering. Even before I asked if I had actually needed to upgrade at all, he asked the question and gave me my money back. No admin charges. No messing about. And before I asked. Customer happiness = 110%.

Now before some of you say, “Well hang on a minute – he gave you money back, that’s not clever” stop and think…

Would I have eventually realised that I didn’t need to upgrade? Yep! Would I have known that he knew that at the time? Yep! Would I have been mighty annoyed? Yep. Any chance of me looking for another supplier? Yep.

Most companies would have made me fight with them for the money. I would have had to argue the toss about their web site being confusing. They’d have probably argued the advantages of the upgrade even though I didn’t need or want it. And finally they’d have told me that there were admin charges involved. I’d have eventually got what I wanted – but I’d have felt very annoyed.

I’m going to stay with them – period!

Conversely, what did this sales man and his company get? LOYALTY. I now trust them to do right by me. I believe they have integrity. I’m going to stay with them – period. And all for them doing what they would have done eventually anyway…

Moral – seeing things from your customer’s point of view can help you to under promise and over deliver.